“The people here in the community, they’re afraid they’re going to lose jobs. They’re afraid there won’t be shelter for the homeless. And so, this is a big thing for this community,” said Pastor Anthony Wilson. They also mentioned disappointment in the proposal because there were previous discussions to develop affordable housing in that exact location.

“There is $150 million in there for the migrants, and that is not OK, as long as the 17th Ward is not getting the things that they want,” Moore said. He has a problem with finding money for the migrants when he said for decades the mostly Black homeless population has been ignored. “You have to put the residents who have been here first. I won’t allow my residents to become footnotes in this budget fight.”

Robberies in Logan Square, West Town, and Humboldt Park have been surging for months, driven by relentless waves of robbery sprees. A coalition of neighborhood groups is calling on city and Cook County officials to address “dramatic increases in violent crime,” especially armed robberies, in West Town, Logan Square, Wicker Park, and adjoining neighborhoods.

“But Mr. Obama’s efforts to build his presidential center have had unlikely echoes with his start in Chicago, when he helped organize South Side tenants concerned about water contamination and asbestos. These days, worried that the Obama Center might price out longtime renters, a younger generation of community organizers has mobilized to seek housing protections, though the organizers say they do not want to block construction of the center.”

“The gap in wages in Chicago, which the recent abolition of subminimum wage seeks to redress, is directly connected to the health gap, which itself leads to the death gap. But the gap in wages is also directly connected to gun violence: The neighborhoods in Chicago with the lowest median income overlap with those with the highest incidence of gun violence. Poverty predicts and is a major confounder of homicide rates…”

The Union League Club of Chicago has become one of the latest employers in Chicago targeted by a class action lawsuit under the state’s biometrics privacy law, because the Club allegedly improperly required workers to scan their fingerprints when punching in and out of work shifts.

The building is zoned for a neighborhood commercial district, which does not allow for the operation of a temporary or transitional shelter without special use approval, according to zoning law. The city has not issued any such permit through the Zoning Board of Appeals, according to the lawsuit. Because the Johnson administration has not gone through the standard city review process, which includes holding a community meeting and an option to testify in front of a city board, the city has “deprived” neighbors of their legal rights to give input on the shelter, according

Through Oct. 22, CPD detectives have opened 502 murder investigations this year, an 11% decrease from 2022. CPD’s chief of detectives Antoinette Ursitti told aldermen last week that “our clearance rate percentage is the highest that it’s been since 2014,” 49.8% as of Oct. 26. Police in New York City say their homicide clearance rate was 78% last year, while the LAPD reported a clearance rate of 76% during the same time.

A witness said a fight broke out at a Halloween party, and escalated quickly when one man was rejected entry at the door following the DJ’s announcement the party was coming to an end. The ages of the victims range from 26 to 53.

Over the past month, a series of NBC 5 Investigates reports exposed how the Kansas-based company has been paid more than $56 million within the past year and has routinely billed the city at 84 hours a week – including overtime – for most of its employees who worked at migrant shelters spread across Chicago.

“In my view, this is a sanctuary state. We have to step up as a state and provide more resources to the City of Chicago to do this work,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “It would also be helpful if the state provided more resources so that other local governments might be willing to do the same.”